Sometimes We Cry
by DecorusSomnium
Summary: Somebody has to tell Angel that Buffy has died...again. Set after Bound by Loyalty.


Title: Sometimes We Cry

Spoilers: Nothing with the actual series. Slight spoilers for the ending of my Bound by Loyalty story.

Summary: Someone has to tell Angel that Buffy is dead…again.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of them. Buffy and Angel go to Whedon.

Author's note: This is set a few days after Buffy dies in Bound by Loyalty.

* * *

How do you tell someone that the person they once thought they would spend the rest of their life with was dead?

Willow knew she should be used to it by now. She had been there once before, had felt the burden of knowledge.

Broke his heart once already.

Had seen the look on his face as his world seemed to fall apart.

Hating herself for what she had to tell him, but knowing there wasn't any way out.

There was never a way out.

She wasn't used to it.

* * *

The offices of Wolfram & Hart were everything Willow had heard they were. Elegant and expensive. There were so many people around, hurrying to and fro like busy little bees. She could feel deep in her bones that some of them weren't 'people'. Underneath some of the faces lurked monsters, ugly monsters.

She wanted to scream at them. Ask them why they looked so happy. Didn't they know her best friend had just died? Didn't they realize that a day wasn't enough time to heal? But she didn't scream at them. She walked past them, face frozen, body stiff. If anybody noticed the expressionless girl, they didn't say anything.

Perhaps it was for the best.

It seemed like forever before she finally reached Angel's outer office, but all too soon she was there, facing the doorway and the empty receptionist desk. Willow's breathing quickened, and she pressed a hand to her aching heart. For some reason, parts of the lyrics to Hurt's song Forever was flitting through her brain.

_It always hurts when it's someone you love  
Won't you rise above  
There's a price in blood._

Her eyes filled, but she blinked the tears away, refusing to cry before she told him. She almost turned around and walked out, but she couldn't do that. She couldn't do that to Angel. He deserved to know, and she needed to be the one to tell him.

Calling herself a coward, she straightened her spine and approached his door. Knocking, Willow softly counted to five, the mechanical process failing to calm her. When no one answered, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the cool glass, wishing she could just be at home. Wishing Buffy wasn't dead again.

She stood there for minutes, or maybe it was hours. She didn't know. Time seemed so meaningless to her at that moment. Willow didn't move until she heard the sound of voices, and she immediately recognized Angel's. Once again, her breathing quickened until she feared she was going to hyperventilate. Telling her body to relax, she turned to face the one person she didn't want to see at that moment.

It only took her a second to find his eyes. She closed hers, waiting for him to figure it out on his own.

It took her by surprise when, instead of him questioning what had happened, he just said her name and asked the question, "What are you doing here?" Only curiosity filled his voice, tainted with some concern.

Didn't he feel it? Didn't he know that she wasn't there anymore?

Couldn't he feel her broken heart?

She opened her eyes and finally, actually looked at the vampire. He had filled out some. His body wasn't so lean, good living and some inaction softening the muscles a bit. His face wasn't so angular, the bones less pronounced. He looked happier than he had been in Sunnydale. Willow knew, at that moment, that what Buffy and Angel used to have was a thing of the past. They were both different people know. He was no longer the newcomer in their Scooby Gang. He had his own gang, with their own problems. What they all used to share in Sunnydale was a different time, a different life.

That realization almost made her lie to him and tell him she was just visiting. Common sense prevailed, however, and she decided that, no matter how much he had changed, he deserved to know what happened. He deserved to know that the Slayer was dead, even if it was for strictly professional reasons.

She opened her mouth and the words refused to come out. Willow had spent the day preparing for this moment, and she didn't know what to say. She didn't want the words to come spilling out, didn't want to just say them without warning him, without getting him ready. But they came out.

"Buffy's dead."

And she left him standing there, a sad look on his face, his new friends surrounding him, his new life waiting for him.

Her best friend was dead, and she had her own grieving to do.

Sometimes we cry when we lose someone very close to us. Willow felt she had done enough crying to last her a lifetime, but that didn't stop the tears from coursing down her cheeks on the way home or when she got the chance to finally say goodbye.

* * *

The End

Well, I finally got this up! Tell me what you think.


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